As Fabio Aru (Astana) and Nairo Quintana (Movistar) were definitely the biggest winners of yesterday’s stage finishing on Montecopiolo, Rigoberto Uran (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) fought bravely to limit his losses, while Rafał Majka literally and figuratively hung between the battling maglia rosa and remaining GC contenders gradually losing ground, equally troubled to gauge consequences of his latest efforts as all observers.

"I don’t know how much I gained on [Cadel] Evans or what I lost to [Nairo] Quintana," Majka told Cyclingnews, as he rolled away from the finish area and towards a Tinkoff-Saxo team car parked further down the slope.

Preferring to ride long climbs in steady rhythm, Majka didn’t respond to accelerations of Aru, Uran, Rolland or Quintana, but still managed to set his own pace to leave the fading group consisting of other CG contenders behind. As a result, the 24-year old Tinkoff-Saxo leader finished 15th stage of the Giro d’Italia 50 seconds down on stage winner Aru, 35 on Quintana and 15 on current race leader Uran, but crossed the finish line with 16 seconds advantage over the likes of Cadel Evans (BMC), Wilco Kelderman (Belkin), Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r La Mondiale) or Robert Kiserlovski (Trek Factory Racing).

After acknowledging time differences, Majka was pleased with final outcome of yesterday’s tough finale and emphasized that the most difficult battles are yet to be fought.

"Yeah? That’s not bad, so," Majka said on learning of the time won and lost. "And there’s still a long way to go."

The 24-year old Pole is not known as the most aggressive climber of the Giro peloton, still lacking the explosiveness as much as self-confidence to truly challenge other GC contenders on steeper slopes, preferring to follow wheels instead. However, Majka was expected to have some attack in mind as he sent Michael Rogers to set the fierce pace from the bottom of the Montecampione climb, quickly reducing maglia rosa group.

"“He was very good and I'm really very happy with the work he did for me on the climb," Majka said. "I like a good tempo like that on the final climb."

The real battle begun on steepest slopes with a little less then 5 kilometers to go, but Tinkoff-Saxo leader never tried to close the gap when Rolland, Aru, Uran and Quintana took off respectively, deciding to limit losses by riding his own rhythm.

"The problem was that there were some accelerations that I didn't really like, but it’'s ok all the same," Majka said. "And I found my rhythm a bit near the summit, too."

While results of yesterday’s stage saw Uran increasing his advantage over closest rivals in general classification, Evans and Majka, time gaps behing young Pole’s back are gradually shrinking with three other podium contenders being within one minute down on him.

"There's still a long way to go," Majka said. “I lost 50 seconds today but it's not a problem because there’s a long way to go and we've got four very tough days coming up. I'm not worried."

While some of the GC contenders are very likely spending their rest day praying for the snow, Majka looks forward to tomorrows queen stage of 2014 Giro d’Italia, claiming that more tough climbing in favorites’ legs before approaching the grande finale to Val Martello should significantly increase his own chances.

"For me, it's better for me if we do the Stelvio, because things are a lot different when you do a lot of climbs in succession rather than just one climb to the finish," he said. "People talk about the summit finishes, but it's going to be a different story on Tuesday when there are three tough climbs during the stage."